You’ve made the decision. You’re going to get fit, feel terrific, boost your energy and improve your health. Lets say (for example) you’re planning to walk briskly 60 minutes every day as a first step to regaining your fitness. You buy a new pair of walking shoes and a great outfit, and head out the first few mornings.

 

Exercising feels great. You can feel your mood improving with each passing day, and your energy levels through the day are rising.

 

And then something odd happens. You wake up one morning with the exercise gremlin perched on your shoulder. This creature appears for most of us 2-3 days or 2-3 weeks into a new exercise regime. His mission is to deter you from training, so he offers a range of plausible reasons why you shouldn’t bother to train today: Its too cold….too hot… its raining….you’re tired….you’re too busy….  He sounds persuasive, and it can be easy to give in, pull the doona back over your head and stay in bed.

 

After a couple of days like this your training program is in pieces, and you’re back to your unfit, unmotivated self. How do you stop this gremlin from wrecking your best intentions? And why does he appear in the first place?

 

Its all about change. We’re psychologically programmed to take actions which keep us feeling safe and secure. Change, whether forced on us or of our own choosing, is uncomfortable because it takes us out of that ‘safe’ zone. With change, its natural to feel challenged. The exercise gremlin is just your subconscious, urging you to stay safe: Stay the same as you always have – that way you’ll be secure. How soon the exercise gremlin appears depends on your personal level of comfort with change; if you usually find it difficult to change, the gremlin is likely to appear within the first day or two of training; if you’re comfortable with change, he might not appear for a couple of weeks.

 

There’s really only one effective way to outwit the exercise gremlin – and that is to ignore him. When he lands on your shoulder the moment you think about training, remind yourself of your goals. Recognise the gremlin for who he is – resistance to change – and head out to training anyway. It takes about six weeks for him to disappear. By then you’ll be feeling so much better that he’ll be easy to ignore when he does appear.

 

By the way – its easier to ignore the exercise gremlin when you can see and feel results from your efforts: So don’t be afraid to enlist support from a professional trainer, individually or part of a group, to find the right level of training for you. You’ll get faster results this way, making it easier to say goodbye to regular visits from the exercise gremlin.

 

 

 

Article © Olwen Anderson, 2008

Meet The Exercise Gremlin!